Denbury Resources Inc. (DNR), Whiting Petroleum Corp (WLL): Three Solid Paths to Energy Profits

Earlier this month, Flotek announced the planned acquisition of Florida Chemical Company, the world’s largest processor of citrus oils. Consideration for the purchase will be $49.5 million in cash and nearly 3.3 million shares of Flotek common stock.

Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL)

Denver-based Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) is an independent oil and gas producer with operations totally within the U.S. It’s exploration and production activities occur in the Rocky Mountain Permian Basin, Mid-Continent, Gulf Coast, and Michigan regions. Oil constitutes 80% of the company’s production, with 70% of that emanating from the prolific Bakken formation.

As my Foolish colleague Tyler Crowe told you last week, the U.S. Geological Survey has recently more than doubled its absurdly conservative 3.5 billion barrel estimate of recoverable oil in the Bakken. Nevertheless, some analysts and industry types believe that the USGS is still being overly cautious. There are those who peg the real recoverable barrels number for the formation nearer to 20 billion.

Analysts who follow Whiting Petroleum Corp (NYSE:WLL) have accorded its shares a mean target price of $60, or 31% above their Thursday close. The shares trade at just 11 times projected earnings for 2014, and the company’s enterprise value to EBITDA is less than 5.0 times. On Friday, SunTrust upgraded Whiting’s shares to a buy rating from neutral. That followed similar upgrades by other firms during the past few months.

The article 3 Solid Paths to Energy Profits originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by David Smith.

Motley Fool contributor David Smith owns shares of Denbury Resources. The Motley Fool owns shares of Denbury Resources Inc. (NYSE:DNR).

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